Conference Program

Our conference programs are focused on content developed through board leadership, peer discussion and scholarly research.

Our sessions have been carefully curated to prepare our members, our guests and the general public for the task ahead: helping communities, historians, genealogists, and researchers in understanding the importance of our ancestors as valuable contributors and founders of the United States of America. 

Friday, May 1, 2026

Luncheon*

11:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Reception:     

12:00 PM - 12:30 PM

Introduction: 

Douglas Cornwall, President General
Society of the First African Families of English America

Honor Guard:

Philadelphia Public Schools
ROTC/Navy or Army

Pledge of Allegiance:

Ric Murphy, President General Emeritus, Society of the First African Families of English America

National Anthem:

Pamela Simmon Parker, Member
Society of the First African Families of English America & Daughters of the American Revolution

Welcome to Philadelphia:

Congressman Dwight Evans,
America 250 Commissioner

Invocation:

Reverend Carolyn Cavaness,
Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church

12:30 PM - 1:45 PM

Lunch

Distinguished Luncheon Speakers (and Topical Areas of Discussion) 

1619:     

Honorable Ambassador Agostinho Van-Dúnem, Embassy of Angola,  
The Arrival of the First Africans

1620-1645:      

Lisa Pennington, Governor, General Society Mayflower Descendants,
Foundations of a New World - Promise and Paradox

1645-1670:      

To be Announced, 
Growing Colonies - Rising Autonomy and Rising Inequity

1670-1695:      

Ken McKeever, General Society of Colonial Wars,
Conflict and Control - Resistance Takes Root

1695-1720:     

Beth Watkins, Vice President, National Society Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America,   
Colonies Expand - Voices Silenced and Voices Rising

1720-1745:     

Matthew Dupee, Order of Founders and Patriots,
Enlightenment and Awakening - New Ideas, Old Chains

1745-1775:      

Ambrose Richardson, Past President, General Society of the Sons of the Revolution, 
Wars of the Colonies - Patriots in the Shadows

1776-1783:      

Marguerite Fritsch, Organizing Secretary General, Daughters of the American Revolution, Declaration of Independence: Crisis and Contradiction

1783:       

Ms. LaJoy Mosby, President, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, 
Revolution - A Dream Declared, Not Yet Delivered

1619 - 2026      

Ric Murphy, President General Emeritus, Society of the First African Families of English America,
The Legacy of the Ancestors

Benediction

Reverend Gayle Fisher-Stewart, Episcopal Diocese of Washington

America 250: Reclaiming the Voice and Legacy of America's African Founding Families and Their Descendants

An address on the importance of America 250 as it honors the service, restores the historical record and ensures the recognition and importance America’s colonial African descended families in our nation’s founding story.

10:00 AM - 10: 45 AM

Roundtable Discussion:     A discussion with the Authors of the Forgotten Patriots; Northern Theatre 

Facilitator:      Ric Murphy, President General Emeritus of the Society of the First African Families of English America.  

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, scholars, historians, genealogists and descendants explore the importance of the War for Independence, and story of the American Revolution through the voices of Americans of African and Indigenous descent who served in the war. Authors of the award-winning book, Forgotten Patriots of the Northern Theater will share how they uncovered and verified the stories of America’s Forgotten Patriots, and how they balanced academic rigor with accessible storytelling. They will share how they used primary sources to reclaim erased narratives and honored ancestors while correcting the historical record.

Scholars:

• Connie Curts (Forgotten Patriot Descendant) is an internationally published author who began historical and genealogical research more than 45 years ago.  Her published credits comprise articles and books for her technical profession and for the general public. She is a member of SOFAFEA and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• Lisa Fox (Forgotten Patriot Descendant) has been researching her Milton/Melton family for over 10 years. She is the 4th great granddaughter of Josiah Milton/Melton of Southampton County, Virginia who provided aid and comfort during the American Revolutionary War. She is a member of SOFAFEA and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
• Jackie Long (Forgotten Patriot Descendant) as been expanding research on her New England roots building on decades of family history research. She has proven colonial and revolutionary lineage and has been accepted for membership by the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution; the Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage, and the Society of the First African Families of English America.     
• Debra Newton-Carter (Forgotten Patriot Family) is a third-generation family historian, specializing in cross-cultural genealogy and has researched her 27 lines of descent through eight Mayflower ancestors, and early Massachusetts and Rhode Island families including NEWTON, KING, WING, and MOSHER. She compiled the history and database used to establish the only Sons of the American Revolution chapter named for a Forgotten Patriot, the NCSSAR Patriot Isaac Carter Chapter, her late husband’s greatgrandfather Isaac Carter, and a descendant of six of the 14 Harlowe Patriots.
• Judith Sanford-Harris (Forgotten Patriot Descendant) is of African and Indigenous ancestry and is an enrolled citizen of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. She has documented her Wampanoag ancestors as far back as the early 1600s, as well as the identities of the men who enslaved several of her Black ancestors, and the men in both her family and her husband’s family who served in the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War. Her 5x great-grandfather, Private Solomon Attaquin, a Wampanoag man o served in the militia during the Revolutionary War, led to a successful application to, and membership in, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) for herself and her two daughters.

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11:00 AM - 11:45 AM

Roundtable Discussion C:     The Footsteps of our Ancestors

Facilitator:    Orice Jenkins

Scholars:

• Jackie Long

• Jon James Olomo.

11:45 - 12:15 Noon

Pictures at the Grand Staircase (in the order of)¹

• General Officers and National Vice Presidents
• Board of Directors with Society Members (with medals)
• Honored family Members
• Descendants of Forgotten Patriots
• Guests

11:45 AM - 1:00 PM

Lunch/ Networking/ Family Collaborations/ Tour of Museum

01:00 PM - 1:45 PM 

Roundtable Discussion C:     Erasure

Facilitator:      Claire Galloway Jones is an educator with the Brookline Massachusetts Public Schools, and a descendant of the historic Ames family of Massachusetts. The family includes Forgotten Patriot Private Prince Ames, Eunice Ames Davis an original Daughter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, several United States Colored Troops, and Sarah Roberts the plaintiff in Roberts v. City of Boston (1849) the precursor to Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and Brown vs Board of Education (1954).

Scholars:

• Dawn Chitty   

• Nikki Williams Sebastian  

• DC Overby 

Facilitator: Mr. Gene Stephenson is a Life Member of the Afro American Historical Genealogical Society and its Immediate Past National President; Former President, Friends of the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History (Fulton County) and Stonecrest Library (Dekalb County, Georgia); National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America -Atlanta GA. Chapter; Member, Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, among others. Chaired the UNCF Advisory Board Central Pennsylvania, the National Forum Black Public Administrators-Capital Area Chapter (Harrisburg, PA.). Mr. Stephenson is a Member/Ordained Elder-First AfriKan Presbyterian Church, Lithonia, GA.

 Scholar:

• Reverend Doctor Khadijah Matin is SOFAFEA's Chaplin General. She is part of the national dialogue, exploring culturally competent education, within accurate historical context, and considers her works in African American family and faith history as her calling and a continuation of her family’s traditions in the ministry and education. Khadijah’s research focus areas include an examination of faith and family history in the shaping of identity and community, and the varied ways in which history and spirituality intersect. Current projects include developing models of learning and service based upon the journey of African Americans, particularly prior to the mid-20th century. In addition to being designated an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow, Khadijah has an MS in Education from Fordham University.

03:00 PM - 3:45 PM

Roundtable Discussion:      Building a Durable Mission-Driven Institution: Strategies for Credibility, Growth, and Public Impact

Facilitator: Douglas Cornwall, President General of the Society of the First African Families of English America.

Scholars:

• Tom Bagley, Plymouth Pautucket Foundation   

• Bren Landon is Director of Public Relations for the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.  She counsels the DAR President General and membership on the many special initiatives of the National Society including the E Pluribus Unum Educational Initiative. She will share how DAR disseminates information to their members and how they engage their members at the local level.